


in our bedroom after the war

by monstermash



Series: memento mori (remember, you will die) [9]
Category: Far Cry (Video Games), Far Cry 5
Genre: Alternate Universe, Black Mirror AU, Established Relationship, M/M, ambiguous ending?, loosely based off of the White Christmas episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 07:36:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15138299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monstermash/pseuds/monstermash
Summary: Jacob wakes to the bright glare of cloudy sunlight on snow with the wind howling and rattling the window, the same way he has for most of the past five years out here.





	in our bedroom after the war

**Author's Note:**

> i haven't actually watched most of black mirror but i've seen the white christmas episode (it's a good episode though the ending is kinda... it's good? but also sad idk) and i figured it would make a good au for far cry 5. i hope no one seems too ooc lmao

Jacob wakes to the bright glare of cloudy sunlight on snow with the wind howling and rattling the window, the same way he has for most of the past five years out here. It’s only when he reaches out for Garrett that he realizes he’s the only one still in bed. It’s odd, but not completely unusual for Garrett to wake up before him. Garrett usually only ever wakes up first when it’s inspection day though.

Well, it’s called that, but it’s mostly just Whitehorse and Burke coming to make sure they haven’t lost their minds due to the isolation of this outpost, of the job, which is why they’re assigned in pairs. He foggily remembers the first two he was paired up with and the seemingly endless expanse of snow had gotten to them and they had to be rotated out.

First had been a guy named Staci Pratt, all bravado and sarcasm before the cold and lack of people had made him a blubbering mess and Jacob had to radio it in that Pratt couldn’t hack it out here. And then one day he woke up and Pratt’s room had been cleared out with an official report left out on the kitchen table saying that his next partner would show up within the week.

Next had been Joey Hudson. Jacob had liked her well enough, but ultimately was neutral towards her. She lasted longer than Pratt by about two months, but the stress of this place had gotten to her too in the end. He didn’t have to radio it in, she did it herself.

Then Garrett Rook had showed up a week after Hudson left and he’s been here ever since; Jacob thanks a God he doesn’t believe in every day for that.

Eventually he rolls out of bed – can’t stay there all day despite how much he’d like to – and stretches until he can feel his back finally pop. The snow covered landscape outside catches his attention and Jacob just… watches it for a while. He’s been out here for five years but he swears that sometimes it doesn’t look like snow out there. That sometimes, it looks like a desert and leaves him feeling uneasy, an ugly coil of dread wrapping around his heart when he thinks he sees…

Well… It doesn’t matter what he thinks he sees, because he knows it’s not real, knows that there’s only snow for miles and miles out there.

He turns away from the window _(there’s nothing out there you need,_ he tells himself) and heads for the cramped bathroom, flicks on the light switch and is met with depressing fluorescent lighting that flickers every now and then, hopes it’s not something with the wiring because Jacob knows he’ll end up cursing up a storm trying to fix it until finally conceding the work to Garrett. Jacob glances at his reflection in the mirror, sees the sickly pallor the bad lighting gives him, prods at the old chemical burns that mar the right side of his face and debates on whether or not he should shave off his beard. Deciding not to (it still hurts to shave around the burns, even now after all this time and honestly isn’t worth dealing with other than trimming it. It helps that Garrett likes it, more reason to keep looking like some kind of mountain man) Jacob moves over to the shower stall and turns it on, not even bothering to wait for the water to warm up before standing right under the spray.

The freezing cold water beats down on him and Jacob lets his mind drift. Five whole years he’s been out here, four and a half of those spent with Garrett, and Jacob wonders how much longer either of them can stand to be here in this outpost.

Wonders what will happen when they finally get rotated out, if they’ll go their separate ways or if they’ll stick together anyway. It’s something that’s bothered and worried him since they became… whatever it is they are. More than fuckbuddies but Jacob’s too old to be using terms like “boyfriends.” Garrett’s told him more than once that the only way he’s getting rid of him is if Jacob tells him to leave and Jacob… he’s not going to say that. Never will.

(“You can do so much better than me when our rotation here is over.”)

(“Unless you tell me to fuck off you’re stuck with me, Jacob.”)

He keeps his shower short – quick and efficient, a leftover habit from his time in the military – and as soon as he steps out he’s hit with an odd ache in his temple, but Jacob shrugs it off. 

(It’s normal.)

(Is it?)

Wrapping a towel around his waist, Jacob forgoes getting dressed in favor of finding Garrett, which shouldn’t be hard. There aren’t many rooms in the outpost, just their room (originally just Jacob’s), Garrett’s unused bedroom, the main room, and the room upstairs where they work. It’s an incredibly short search to be honest, literally just steps out of their room and there Garrett is at the stove that has clearly seen better days and humming along to the radio.

Moving silently, Jacob sneaks up behind Garrett, snakes his arms around Garrett’s middle and Jacob presses flush against him, making Garrett yelp in surprise as the back of his shirt gets soaked through from the water still clinging to Jacob’s skin.

“Morning,” Jacob says nonchalantly as he peers over Garrett’s shoulder to see what he’s making.

“Morning to you too, jerk,” Garrett grumbles but he doesn’t pull away, leans back into Jacob instead. “About time you woke up too. Thought you were going to sleep through inspection.”

“It’s only seven. They won’t even be here until nine.”

“Exactly.”

Garrett always gets stressed on inspection days and Jacob still hasn’t quite figured out why. He remembers thinking at first it was because Garrett was worried about making a bad impression with Whitehorse and Burke, but Jacob threw that idea out the window when he saw how Garrett was around them. It wasn’t nerves at all, more like Garrett was politely indifferent, wary around them as if they were vipers waiting to strike.

This doesn’t really make any sense to Jacob, because in the five years he’s known Whitehorse and Burke the worst offense either of them has really committed is when Burke inevitably gets too nosey and pushy about Jacob’s military service. It bothers Garrett more than it bothers Jacob, but it’s… endearing, to see Garrett get protective of him.

(He's turning into a sap, using words like _"endearing.")_

It sure as hell is funny to watch Garrett politely tell Burke to piss off too.

Brushing his knuckles against Garrett’s ribs, Jacob leans in and presses a kiss to the sensitive spot just under his ear. They share a look and Jacob honestly never thought he’d know or be comfortable enough with someone to speak without talking, to just _know._ Garrett turns off the stove, turns in Jacob’s arms and starts walking him back towards their room, a mischievous grin on his face that Jacob finds himself matching.

(He ignores the tundra turned desert that he sees through the window. Ignores the slumped over figure in the distance. He knows it’s not really there. It’s not _real.)_

\---

When Whitehorse and Burke show up things go as they normally do.

Whitehorse and Burke sit at the table, Jacob and Garrett make coffee and have a hushed conversation, then they all sit and make awkward small talk until everyone just hands the reins over to Burke.

And usually, Burke will somehow direct the conversation to ask about what Jacob did in the army. Where he was stationed.

But not this time.

This time Burke reaches into a pocket and pulls out an odd looking, egg shaped device with a tiny glowing blue light.

“Do you know what this is, Jacob?” Burke asks, but doesn’t wait for Jacob to answer. “This here is what we call a ‘cookie.’”

Burke holds it up, an oddly smug look on his face, glancing at Garrett before fixing his attention back on Jacob.

“Now this is just a shell, but what goes inside… oh man, what this thing houses is something straight out of science-fiction. See, there’s a tiny chip that has a copy of a person’s consciousness, their entire being stored on a chip no bigger than the nail on my little finger.”

Jacob eyes Burke warily. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I’m tired of beating around the bush here, Jacob. I want to know what happened out there. I want to know what happened in the desert. I want to know what happened to Miller.”

Jacob feels his heart stop for a few painful seconds.

“What?” Jacob almost doesn’t recognize his own voice with how it cracks.

“Everything that you are fits into one of these,” Burke says, setting down the ‘cookie.’ “And we want answers, Seed. We couldn’t get a confession out of the real you so we had you copied.”

“That’s enough,” Garrett grits out, picking up the ‘cookie’ and shoving it into Burke’s chest. “Both of you need to leave.”

Burke snorts but gets up. “How cute, an AI getting protective of a copy.”

Whitehorse has remained quiet the whole time, but looks… almost regretful as he and Burke suddenly blink out of existence.

Jacob feels like his whole world is falling apart.

He can’t focus on anything but then Garrett crouches down in front of him, hands cupping Jacob’s face to make him look at Garrett.

“Jacob, please talk to me.”

There’s worry on his face, but is it real? Burke had called him an AI and… Had any of it been real? Had any of it actually meant anything to Garrett?

“You knew, didn’t you?”

Guilt mars Garrett’s face and Jacob…

“Yes.”

Jacob can’t fucking believe it.

And then something on the other side of the window catches his eye. Snow turned to sand, a slumped over figure in the distance.

“Get out.”

Garrett’s brow knots in confusion.

“What?”

Anger wells up from deep within Jacob and he stands abruptly, sending his chair skidding back violently, and moves away from Garrett, unable to look at him.

“Get. _Out.”_ It doesn’t matter which window he looks out of, it’s all that same piece of desert with a dead Miller out in the distance, half eaten by Jacob, half eaten by scavengers. Everything had been a lie; their time together, Garrett, himself, all of it. And Garrett _knew_ the entire time. “This is me telling you to fuck off, Garrett.”

He turns around in time to see the heartbroken look on Garrett’s face before he blinks out of existence too.

Things go downhill from there.

\---

He’s losing his god damn mind, just watching the sun rise and fall in rapid succession, the passage of time going by faster than it should.

And the entire time he can see Miller’s corpse rotting in the desert right outside his window. Any window really.

Jacob misses the snow. Misses Garrett so much it physically pains him, but it’s not real, none of this is.

Because he’s just a copy, made out of nothing but code.

He begs for Garrett to come back after the first month of complete solitude, but he doesn’t come back. Jacob wonders if Garrett is gone for good, or if he’s angry at Jacob, or if Burke and Whitehorse keep him from returning, intent on getting Jacob to confess one way or another.

Jacob spends _years_ alone in the outpost, just staring out at Miller’s corpse. At some point the radio started up and began to play _Only You._ It hasn’t stopped. He’s tried smashing the radio only to have it keep coming back. There’s no way for him to turn it off.

He can’t take it anymore, can’t stand this hell anymore. Just curls up on the floor and stares at the wall.

_(Jacob?)_

A prolonged death, but there’s no end in sight.

_(Jacob.)_

He wishes he hadn’t told Garrett to leave, regrets it now more than ever.

_(Jacob, look at me.)_

Something taps at his cheek and Jacob’s eyes snap open at the sensation (when had he closed them?), shudders at the touch because it’s been so long…

And there’s Garrett smiling apologetically at him, curled up right next to Jacob.

Jacob reaches out, sinks his fingers into Garrett’s hair before hauling him closer until their noses are barely touching. And they lay there without saying a word, speaking without talking as an eternity passes by in the blink of an eye yet somehow drags on at a snail’s pace.

They lay there entangled with each other even as the lights go out one by one.

\---

Burke sits in the borrowed office and scowls at the ‘cookie’ containing Jacob Seed.

“We were never going to get a confession out of him,” Whitehorse tells him plainly.

Burke just shakes his head and storms out.

With a heavy sigh, Whitehorse reaches over to the ‘cookie’s’ control panel and adjusts the settings before pocketing the ‘cookie’ and leaving as well.


End file.
